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A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. Usually a small paper rectangle which is attached to an envelope, signifying that the person sending the letter or package has paid for delivery, it is the most popular alternative to using a prepaid-postage envelope.
Stamps have been issued in other shapes, however: the circular stamps of New Zealand, triangular and pentagonal, and Sierra Leone and Tonga have issued self-adhesive stamps in the shape of fruit, Bhutan has issued a stamp with its national anthem on a playable record, etc. Stamps have also been made of materials other than paper, commonly [embossed] foil; Switzerland made a stamp partly out of lace, and the German Democratic Republic once issued a stamp made entirely of synthetic chemicals.
The adhesive postage stamp and the uniform postage rate were devised in Great Britain by James Chalmers around 1834. The same ideas were published by Rowland Hill, in Postal Reform: its Importance and Practibility in 1837. In it he argued that it would be better for the sender to pay the cost of delivery, rather than the addressee who could refuse the letter if they could not or did not want to pay, as sometimes happened at the time. He also argued for a uniform rate of one penny per letter, no matter where its destination. Accounting costs for the government would thus be cut; postage would no longer be charged according to how far a letter had travelled, which required each letter to have an individual entry in the Royal MailVictorian hexagonal red post box. Traditionally UK post boxes carry the initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina''. Royal Mail is the national postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail's accounts. Chalmers' ideas were finally adopted by ParliamentAlternative meanings: Parliamentary system, Parliament (band), Parliament (cigarette). A parliament is a legislative body, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system derived from that of the United Kingdom. in August, 1839Events January 9 The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process. January 19 British East India Company captures Aden January 20 In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance. February 24 William Ot and the General Post Office launched the Penny PostThe Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, the London Penny Post was established in 1680 by William Dockwra, who established a local post that used a unifo service the next year in 1840 with two prepaid-postage pictorial envelopes or wrappers: one valued at a penny and one valued at twopence.
Three months later the first prepaid-postage stamp, known as the Penny BlackFor the research project, see Penny Black (research project). The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom on May 1, 1840, for use from May 6. The idea of an adhesive stamp to indicate prepayment of p was issued with the profile of Queen Victoria printed on it. Because the United Kingdom issued the first stamps, the Universal Postal UnionThe Universal Postal Union (UPU) a international organization that coordinates postal policies between member nations, and hence the world-wide postal system. Each member country agrees to the same set of terms for conducting international postal duties. (U.P.U.) grants it an exemption from its rule that the identification of the issuing country must appear on a stamp in roman script for use in international mails. Before joining the U.P.U. many countries did not do this (e. g. the " bullseyeBullseye was a British game show made by ATV and Central Television between 1981 and 1995, and hosted by Jim Bowen. Centred around darts, the show placed three pairs of contestants against one another to win prizes ranging from a new car or a speedboat to" stamps of Brazil); there are very few violations of the rule since this time, though one example is the U.S. Pilgrim Tercentenary series, on which the country designation was inadvertently excluded. Because of this the numerous early issues of China and Japan often confound new collectors unfamiliar with oriental scripts. A stamp must also show a face value in the issuing country's currency. Some countries have issued stamps with a letter of the alphabet or designation such as " First class" for a face value. Because of the U.P.U. rules their use is restricted to domestic mail, but breach of this rule is often tolerated. (Exceptions to this are the British "E" stamp (intended to pay the rate for mailing letters to Europe) and the South African "International Letter Rate" stamp.)